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Accident prevention features to affect vehicle safety ratings?

Safety features like rearview cameras may soon factor into vehicle crash-test scores.

To score high on the government's five-star safety program, car companies may soon need to do more than just protect passengers during a crash.

They might need to keep their customers out of accidents, too. That would be a boon to suppliers selling such equipment as radar and video cameras that watch the road ahead.

In a notice last week, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration asked the public to comment on possible changes to its ratings program. Among the possible additions: new ratings for crash-avoidance features, which automakers are quickly adding to vehicles to get an edge with safety-minded consumers.

Despite the growing popularity of features such as automatic emergency braking and lane-keeping assist, there is no federal rating system to help shoppers decide which cars would be best at keeping them out of accidents.

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety took a step in that direction several years ago when it started requiring cars to have electronic stability control to qualify for its Top Safety Pick honors.

The group may eventually start testing forward-collision warning and automatic braking systems.

"The technology that you need to predict a possible crash and take some steps against it is becoming more readily available," said David Zuby, chief research officer at IIHS, which gets funding from car insurance companies.

Among the companies pushing into crash-avoidance features is Ford Motor Co., which now offers a long-range radar sensor on many Ford and Lincoln models.

That sensor, supplied by Delphi Automotive, goes under the front bumper and enables both adaptive cruise control and forward collision warning systems.

It costs about $1,000 to add adaptive cruise control and forward collision warning systems to a car, said Andy Sarkisian, a safety product planning and strategy manager at Ford. The percentage of cars with the features now ranges from 5 to 25 percent in Ford models and 20 to 35 percent in Lincolns.